Ryanair cancels flights to Spanish tourist hotspots as it slashes capacity

One of the affected airports is in Tenerife

In total there will be one million less seats on flights to Spain available to customers, including 400,000 less from the Spanish Canary Island territory.

The other 400,000 have been cut across popular Spanish regional airports like Santiago and Vigo in Galicia.

Ryanair will close its two-aircraft base which is also located in Santiago, while all flights to Vigo are suspended.

Ryanair made the announcement on Wednesday (3 September), where they shared full details of which airports will be affected and by how much.

Zaragoza: down by 45 per cent

Santander: down by 38 per cent

Asturias: down by 16 per cent

Vitoria: down by just two per cent.

Overall, this constitutes a decline of 41% on scheduled seats to mainland Spain.

Ryanair says the cuts have been made in response to increased costs.

Spanish airport operator AENA plans to increase passenger fees by 6.62% next year which Ryanair says "further harm[s] Spain's already vulnerable regional airports and will inevitably lead to a loss of investment, connectivity, tourism, and jobs in regional Spain, as many routes will become economically unviable.”

When they announced the upcoming increase in fees, AENA said the new prices were "extremely competitive and well below those of comparable European operators."

Ryanair CEO Eddie Wilson said the budget airline will be diverting flights to other areas in Europe.

He said they will look at "more efficient airports eager to develop traffic, particularly those in Italy, Morocco, Croatia, Sweden, and Hungary.”